Chapter 4 – In the Kingdom of Fools
Think About It
1. What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools?
Answer
The two strange things that the guru and his disciple find in the kingdom of fools are:
- People used to work during nights and sleep during days
- Cost of everything in the market was the same, one duddu, whether it was a measure of rice or a bunch of bananas
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2. Why does the disciple decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea?
Answer:
The disciple decided to stay in the Kingdom of Fools because he was very happy with the fact that everything was quite cheap there. He had peculiarity of diet. He was tempted by the cheap food. So, he thought of enjoying an easy life by staying in that kingdom.
No, it was not a good idea to stay there for a long time. All the people of the kingdom were fools and they could be dangerous for them in future, as suggested the Guru.
3. Name all the people who are tried in the king’s court, and give the reasons for their trial.
Answer:
Following people were tried in the king’s court:
- The merchant whose house was burgled: He was pronounced guilty because his wall was weak that fell upon the burglar and killed him.
- The bricklayer who built the wall: He had built a wall which was weak and which collapsed killing the burglar.
- The dancing girl: She was tried for distracting the bricklayer with her jingling anklets by
walking up and down the road where bricklayer was laying the wall. - The goldsmith: He was tried as he didn’t complete the dancing girl’s order on time and so she
had to walk up and down to his house a dozen times.
The king then came to the conclusion that the goldsmith should be punished and summoned him. But when he was summoned to the court he in turn shifted the whole blame on to the merchant’s father who pressurised him for completing his order first due to which he (the goldsmith) could not complete the girl’s order in time.
4. Who is the real culprit according to the king? Why does he escape punishment?
Answer:
According to the king, the real culprit was the merchant. Actually, the merchant’s father was the real murderer but he was dead. On consulting this with his ministers, the king came to the conclusion that the punishment would be carried out on the merchant.
He escapes the punishment because he is too thin to be properly executed on the stake.
5. What are the Guru’s words of wisdom? When does the disciple remember them?
Answer:
The Guru’s words of wisdom were that it was the city of fools and their unpredictable behaviour could create danger anytime. He advised the disciple to leave the city because he would not know what they would do next.
The disciple remembers these words when he was going to be executed in place of the merchant.
6. How does the guru manage to save his disciple’s life?
Answer:
The guru tries to confuse the king by expressing his desire to be killed first. He told the king that it was not an ordinary stake. It was the stake of the god of justice. It was new that never had a criminal on it. So, whoever would die on the stake first would become the king in next life and the second to die would become his minister. The king wanted to avail himself of the opportunity as he didn’t want to lose the kingdom to someone else in the next round of life. So he ordered to postpone the execution to the next day and talked in secret with his minister. That night, the king and his minister went secretly to the prison. They released the guru and the disciple and disguised themselves as the two. Finally, both of them were taken to the stake and promptly executed. In this way the Guru managed to save his disciple’s life.
In the Kingdom of Fools Extra Questions and Answers Class 9 English Moments
In the Kingdom of Fools Extra Questions and Answers Short Answer Type
Question 1.
What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the kingdom of fools?
Answer:
Firstly, they find that the whole town, including the animals, slept by day and stayed awake through the night running their businesses. Secondly, everything costs the same, whether it was a measure of rice or a bunch of bananas—they all cost a duddu.
Question 2.
Why was the kingdom called the Kingdom of Fools?
Answer:
It was called so because the Kind and the minister were idiots. They decided to change night into day and day into night, and ordered everyone to wake at night to till their fields, and sleep during the day.
Question 3.
Why did the people follow the orders of the foolish King?
Answer:
They were forced to do so because they knew that if they disobeyed his orders, they would be punished with death.
Question 4.
What astonished the guru and disciple at the grocer’s shop?
Answer:
They were astonished that everything at the shop whether a measure of rice or a bunch of bananas cost the same, i.e., a duddu.
Question 5.
Compare and contrast the feelings of the guru and the disciple about the kingdom they found themselves in.
Answer:
The guru felt that it would not be a great idea to stay in the kingdom, and they should leave the place. On the -other hand, the disciple refused to leave, because he felt that everything was so cheap and good, that he could eat to his heart’s content.
Question 6.
Why did the guru leave the disciple and go away from the Kingdom of Fools?
Answer:
Since the disciple refused to listen to his guru’s wisdom and insisted on staying there, the guru gave up and left.
Question 7.
What made the disciple grow fat?
Answer:
The disciple ate his fill of bananas, ghee, rice, and wheat, which cost only one duddu. As a result, he grew fatter and fatter.
Question 8.
Why does the writer say that ‘one bright day a thief broke into a rich merchant’s house’? What is strange about this statement?
Answer:
The strange thing is that the theft took place during the daylight hours. In any other place, theft would typically take place during the dark of night. However, the people in the Kingdom of Fools slept during the day and woke at night.
Question 9.
Why did the thief s brother run to the King?
Answer:
He ran to the King to complain about the fact that his brother had been killed because the wall of the house he had gone to rob had fallen on him.”
Question 10.
Do you think the plea made by the thief s brother was strange? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer:
Yes, it was strange, because instead of hiding the fact that his brother was a thief, and had died trying to rob the merchant’s house, he went to the King without any fear and demanded justice.
Question 11.
Do you think it was normal for the King to have demanded an explanation from the merchant for the death of the thief? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer:
No, because the thief had been doing something illegal, and yet the man he had tried to rob was being put on trial. Even though the thief died because of the wall collapsing, the merchant was not responsible for the death.
Question 12.
How does the merchant try to save his life?
Answer:
He tries to do so by blaming the brick-layer for building a wall that was so weak that it collapsed on the thief, killing him.
Question 13.
Who does the brick-layer blame for the weak wall that he had built?
Answer:
The brick-layer blames the dancing girl for distracting him by walking up and down the road in front of him with her anklets jingling.
Question 14.
Who does the dancing girl blame for her going up and down the road in front of the brick-layer?
Answer:
The dancing girl blames the goldsmith, who had to make some jewellery for her, but had not made it in time. Because of this, she had to visit him several times, thereby walking up and down the street in front of the brick-layer, disturbing him.
Question 15.
How does the goldsmith save himself from the wrath of the King?
Answer:
The goldsmith blamed a rich merchant for pressurising him to make some jewellery for him, thereby not leaving him with any time to complete the dancing girl’s jewellery. Therefore, he blames the rich merchant for being indirectly responsible for the thief’s death.
Question 16.
How does the blame come back to the rich merchant who had been accused in the first place?
Answer:
On investigating the identity of the rich merchant who had asked the goldsmith to make jewellery for him, it was found to be the father of the merchant who had been blamed for the thief’s death in the first place. However, as the father was now dead and the son had inherited his riches, the King decided that the son would also be responsible for taking his punishment.
Question 17.
Why did the King not decide to execute the merchant even though he found him responsible for the death of the thief?
Answer:
He decided not to execute the merchant because he felt he was too thin to be properly executed on the stake. He felt they needed someone fatter to fit the stake.
Question 18.
How did the guru divine that his disciple was in trouble? What did he do?
Answer:
The guru had magical powers. He could see far into the future, the past and the present. When the disciple prayed to him in his heart, he heard him and appeared before him to help him.
Question 19.
Why did the guru pretend to fight with his disciple?
Answer:
He did this to confuse the King about the reason for his eagerness to die instead of the disciple. He knew that the King was stupid and could be fooled into taking his own life.
Question 20.
What reason does the guru give for his eagerness to die?
Answer:
The guru said that if he was the first person to die at the new stake, he would be reborn as the next King of the kingdom.
Question 21.
Why did the King and the minister decide to take the place of the guru and the disciple?
Answer:
The King was not keen to lose his kingdom to someone else, even in the next life. Thus, he decided to die instead of the guru. He then made his minister agree to go along with him so he could continue to be his minister in the next life as well.
Question 22.
Why did the King and minister disguise themselves as the guru and disciple?
Answer:
They did this so that the executioner would mistake them for the condemned and kill them at the stake.
Question 23.
Why did the people of the kingdom panic at the sight of the bodies of the two executed men?
Answer:
They panicked because they realised that the two who had been executed were the King and the minister, and not the two who had been condemned to death.
Question 24.
Why did the people approach the guru and his disciple?
Answer:
The people realised that they needed a new King and a minister for the kingdom, and approached the guru and his disciple because they had proved to be smarter than the previous King.
Question 25.
On what conditions did the guru and disciple agree to rule the kingdom?
Answer:
They agreed to become the King and minister on the condition that they could change all the old laws. They also insisted that night would be night, day would be day, and one could no longer get everything for one duddu.
In the Kingdom of Fools Extra Questions and Answers Long Answer Type
Question 1.
Why did the disciple decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Was this a good idea? What does it reveal about his character?
Answer:
The disciple decided to stay in the kingdom because he was tempted by the fact that the place had good and cheap food, and he could eat his fill every day. This was not a good idea, because he grew So fat with all the food he ate that he almost lost his life when the King decided to put him on the stake because he was the right size for it. This shows that the disciple was immature and his greed had overcome his good sense. It also shows that he placed his body’s craving for food above his loyalty and obedience to his guru.
Question 2.
Name all the people who are tried in the King’s court, and give reasons for each of their trials.
Answer:
A large number of people are tried in the King’s court, starting with the rich merchant. It was his house that the thief tried to enter, but died when a wall collapsed on him. He was called for trial when the thief’s brother blamed him for the thief’s death.
The next person to be tried was the brick-layer, who had built the house. He was put on trial for having built such a weak wall that had collapsed. After that, a dancing girl was put on trial, because the brick-layer accused her of distracting him by walking up and down the street with her anklets jingling while he was building the wall. The girl, however, blamed the goldsmith for not having made her ornaments on time, which caused her to go up and down the street.
The goldsmith was then put on trial, but blamed a rich merchant for pressurising him to make ornaments, because of which he could not complete the dancing girl’s jewellery. This rich merchant turned out to be the father of the merchant whose house had been broken into.
Question 3.
Who is the real culprit according to the King? Why does he escape punishment?
Answer:
According to the King, the real culprit was the rich merchant’s father, who had ordered the goldsmith to make jewellery. However, since he was dead, his son would have to be punished in his place. He escaped punishment because when the stake for impaling the criminal was sharpened and ready, the minister felt that the merchant was somehow too thin to be properly executed on the stake. He appealed to the King, who agreed with this observation. They thus decided that they needed to find a man fat enough to fit the stake.
Question 4.
What were the guru’s words of wisdom? When does the disciple remember them?
Answer:
The guru’s wise words were: ‘This is a city of fools. You don’t know what they will do next.The disciple remembers these words when he is imprisoned just because he was fat enough to fit the stake which had been prepared as a punishment for a crime he had no knowledge about.
Question 5.
How did the guru manage to save his disciple’s life? What does it reveal about the King and his minister?
Answer:
The guru appeared at his disciple’s prayers, and took control of the situation. He asked the’king to put him in the stake before his disciple, because he was the guru and therefore greater than the disciple. The disciple jumped into the fray and started arguing that he should be put on the stake first. The king was puzzled by their behaviour and asked the guru why he wanted to die instead of his disciple. The guru refused to answer, and continued to ask that he be executed first. The King insisted on being told the reason, until at last the guru took him aside and told him that the stake was actually the stake of justice, and whoever died on it first would be reborn as the king of that country, and the next person to die on it would become the minister.
The king was troubled as he didn’t want to lose the kingdom even in the next life. Therefore, he postponed the execution and decided that he and his minister would take the place of the guru and the disciple. This shows how foolish and gullible the king and his minister were, and how easily they were fooled by the guru. It also shows the intelligence of the guru, who not only saved his disciple’s life, but also improved the lot of the kingdom.